The swings and roundabouts of form look set to be the defining characteristic of the 2022 Formula 1 season. With brand new technical regulations the biggest challenge for teams was always going to be understanding now to get the most out of their package. With limited running pre-season, the data gained in the opening rounds is critical.

In Bahrain and Australia Ferrari were the dominant force. Red Bull, and Max Verstappen, claimed victory in Saudi Arabia but it was clear that the Ferrari was more than a match on the Arabian Peninsula. With the paddock returning to Europe and a home race for Ferrari the expectations on the Prancing Horse were through the roof. In front of their top executives and bigwigs Ferrari picked the worst time possible to be a lame horse that looked in need of being put out of its misery.

Carlos Sainz was out of the action at the first corner after a crash with Daniel Ricciardo. Charles Leclerc, the championship leader, suffered with an unbalanced car that never gave him confidence.  Whereas in previous races the team had been able to generate mechanical grip from the Pirelli tryes they struggled in Italy. That being so Leclerc was on course for a safe podium until he tried a late
race move for second position.

"It was a very tricky race," said the Ferrari star. "Finishing third was the best result we coula have secured today, as our competitors were very strong. I struggled on the soft tyres but when I saw an opportunity to overtake Perez for second, I went for it, pushing a bit too much, when I should have stayed put to secure those points. We will analyse all the data and come back stronger!'

It was a surprise to see Ferrari struggle like this given how the opening races had gone but a raft of Red Bull upgrades pushed the balance of power towards the reigning champion. Upgrades to the floor and to the brake cooling gave the RB18 a performance improvement but even more importantly it did not add to their reliability woes from the opening rounds. In Bahrain and Australia
Verstappen retired with fuel pump problems while his teammate, Sergio Perez, was also sidelined with this problem at the opener.

"A one-two for the team is just incredible," said Verstappen afterwards. "It was a very lovely Sunday! Everything today was well executed, coming into the weekend I didn't expect it to be like this. It was more or less a perfect weekend. I scored the maximum amount of points this weekend and we can be really proud of that as a Team, it's a great boost Today was all about judging the conditions, making the right calls and staying very focused and I think we did that very well."

The weekend was perfect for Red Bull and Verstappen has now closed the points gap to 27 points before the Miami Grand Prix.

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